Dan Watrous
Well-Known Member
Which excavator options would you give up first, as there are very few machines on the internet that meet all of my wish list?
My property is 40 acres of forest on the side of a lower Sierra Nevada mountain with about an acre of pretty level land for a cabin and family gathering place. Fortunately it was logged 20-30 years ago and there are a few miles of overgrown trails cut into the hillside at multiple elevations. The hillside is steep, so the only safety is to stay on these trails cut in by a dozer to a mild slope and usually a berm downhill.
I want to widen the uphill side and clean out these trails for hiking and trail bikes or atvs with a small to mid-sized excavator. Smaller seems safer, but it has to be able to remove stumps in the way. I don't have the luxury of digging all the way around all of the stumps. The trees in the trails are less than a foot, most less than 6 inches, but the low overgrowth is such that it can take several minutes to walk a hundred feet. The larger stumps are the ones encroaching on the driveway and trails from the uphill side where I want to widen the driveway or trail and these trees/stumps can be up to 2-3 feet where the dozer went around the stump.
This is a long term project to leave to my family, no need for efficiency. Maybe 2-300 hours a year, possibly more if the five 35+ boys get involved. I'm more worried about mice damage than wearing something out. Something to enjoy doing.
In the valley I have a large Cat and Deere dealership and a small Case/New Holland dealership for construction. The valley is ag country, so we have every dealership that make ag tractors, but I don't know what that means if I want an excavator part. We have a large Bobcat dealer for skidsteers and miniexcavators, so hopefully could get a part for a larger machine.
It is difficult to find all the options I want on a middle-age 30kish pound excavator with:
-- width up to 8.5 feet for transport and so I don't have to widen every skidder trail
-- steel tracks rather than rubber pads due to some rocky areas and better traction on leaves on slopes
-- progressive link thumb rather than hydraulic thumb as grabbing brush to pull out will be constant
-- a blade to smooth out the work area to save getting a skidsteer for rough grading of the trails
-- about a hundred horsepower and 2 boom cylinders to increase breakout forces as there will be hundreds of stumps up to 12 inches and up to a hundred of larger stumps 1-3 feet. Might need a ripper if too many large ones, as steep hillside may prevent going around stumps.
Looking at ironplanet, machinerytrader, facebook marketplace, craigslist and ebay, there are very few Cat machines with progressive link thumbs, as if all have been added after the sale. Somewhere in the 310 to 315 area has most of the other features I want. I found 4 in America. Two Deere 130Gs and one Bobcat 145 have all the options. The Bobcat has the lowest hours.
I excluded new, and essentially new, machines. My price range is $100-150k and these machines were built around 2019 and have 1-3000 hours on them. I excluded much older machines as I am not a mechanic. The other makers that include oem progressive link thumbs seem to all have rubber pads and those local dealers only have ag equipment on their lots, 2 dings unless you disagree.
To widen the field for more machines, which of my above choices should I give up?
My property is 40 acres of forest on the side of a lower Sierra Nevada mountain with about an acre of pretty level land for a cabin and family gathering place. Fortunately it was logged 20-30 years ago and there are a few miles of overgrown trails cut into the hillside at multiple elevations. The hillside is steep, so the only safety is to stay on these trails cut in by a dozer to a mild slope and usually a berm downhill.
I want to widen the uphill side and clean out these trails for hiking and trail bikes or atvs with a small to mid-sized excavator. Smaller seems safer, but it has to be able to remove stumps in the way. I don't have the luxury of digging all the way around all of the stumps. The trees in the trails are less than a foot, most less than 6 inches, but the low overgrowth is such that it can take several minutes to walk a hundred feet. The larger stumps are the ones encroaching on the driveway and trails from the uphill side where I want to widen the driveway or trail and these trees/stumps can be up to 2-3 feet where the dozer went around the stump.
This is a long term project to leave to my family, no need for efficiency. Maybe 2-300 hours a year, possibly more if the five 35+ boys get involved. I'm more worried about mice damage than wearing something out. Something to enjoy doing.
In the valley I have a large Cat and Deere dealership and a small Case/New Holland dealership for construction. The valley is ag country, so we have every dealership that make ag tractors, but I don't know what that means if I want an excavator part. We have a large Bobcat dealer for skidsteers and miniexcavators, so hopefully could get a part for a larger machine.
It is difficult to find all the options I want on a middle-age 30kish pound excavator with:
-- width up to 8.5 feet for transport and so I don't have to widen every skidder trail
-- steel tracks rather than rubber pads due to some rocky areas and better traction on leaves on slopes
-- progressive link thumb rather than hydraulic thumb as grabbing brush to pull out will be constant
-- a blade to smooth out the work area to save getting a skidsteer for rough grading of the trails
-- about a hundred horsepower and 2 boom cylinders to increase breakout forces as there will be hundreds of stumps up to 12 inches and up to a hundred of larger stumps 1-3 feet. Might need a ripper if too many large ones, as steep hillside may prevent going around stumps.
Looking at ironplanet, machinerytrader, facebook marketplace, craigslist and ebay, there are very few Cat machines with progressive link thumbs, as if all have been added after the sale. Somewhere in the 310 to 315 area has most of the other features I want. I found 4 in America. Two Deere 130Gs and one Bobcat 145 have all the options. The Bobcat has the lowest hours.
I excluded new, and essentially new, machines. My price range is $100-150k and these machines were built around 2019 and have 1-3000 hours on them. I excluded much older machines as I am not a mechanic. The other makers that include oem progressive link thumbs seem to all have rubber pads and those local dealers only have ag equipment on their lots, 2 dings unless you disagree.
To widen the field for more machines, which of my above choices should I give up?